It is a common practice of testing body fluid in the medical and healthcare field. The diagnostic test is applied more and more widely by workshops, government agencies, sport teams and other organizations to ensure safety at public places and compliance with laws, regulation and rules.
It is a very popular method to use an assay device to collect liquid samples such as urine to determine if a certain analyte (eg: drug and/or metabolite thereof, or some markers associated with diseases) is present in the sample. When such assay devices are used, samples are generally required to put into sample containers and a technician related has to dip a part of test strip into the collected sample and read the test result after taking out the test strip. Under such circumstances, the technician may contact the sample, which probably endangers his/her health or contaminates the sample. Therefore the sample container shall be sealed with a cover body before operation to avoid such risk. At present, a plurality of airtight devices have been invented such as these disclosed in American patents U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,976,923, 5,429,804 and 6,726,879. Test strips are fixed on covers of assay devices mentioned above and soaked into samples when the container is turned or tilted. An American patent published on Feb. 6, 2003, US2003/0027359A1 discloses a urine test cup. A column piston with a push rod is needed to make liquid samples flow out of the cup chamber and moisten the test element after the cover of the urine test cup closes the opening thereof. A Chinese patent application 200510113977.5 discloses a urine test cup which leads liquid sample to flowing from a collecting chamber to an assay chamber after the cover of the urine test cup closes the opening thereof. Another Chinese patent application 200480033286.8 also discloses a urine test cup which starts the test after the cover of the urine test cup closes the opening thereof. All said conventional devices have to be handled by those skilled in the art.
Recently, such assay devices are used more and more widely by common family or nonprofessional institutes. The test results have to be assessed by nonprofessionals, so a simpler operation procedure needs to be designed for these devices with accurate test results.
As a result, an assay device simple to operate with accurate test result is needed in the market. This invention provides an assay device meeting such needs.